I found this dead bee outside the hive a few days ago. It had what appears to be a clear wax scale in its mouth. That's interesting how beeswax starts off looking clear as glass:
I wonder why the bees were producing any wax at this time of year in virginia.

I found this dead bee outside the hive a few days ago. It had what appears to be a clear wax scale in its mouth.

It looks like a very young varroa. Varroa is clear like that when young. It looks too round and uniform to be wax, also looks like it has crab legs like a varroa mite does.

01-28-2009, 08:16 AM

Oldbee

"I wonder why the bees were producing any wax at this time of year in Virginia".-samak.---Although I've become leery of making guesses of things I see in photos on Beesource, I have to agree with fatscher. The shape of the object [scale] looks too much like a mite and there appears to be 'remnants' of mite 'body parts' inside. The size of the object looks large for a mite, but maybe the bee has shrunk [in comparison] from drying out. I have seen dead mites on the landing boards all the time. It's difficult to see the 'clear ones' sometimes. It would help if the photo was sharper. With its last breath, the bee was,.. 'trying to tell you something'.

01-28-2009, 09:40 AM

BULLSEYE BILL

Looks too large to be either a wax scale or a mite to me. My first thought was that it regurgitated a droplet of body fluids or food that dried.

01-28-2009, 10:20 AM

Oldbee

A droplet of body fluids or food that dried." :eek: ??

Wouldn't the droplet 'dry' to to something very small?

Although I agree the object looks a bit large, I would have to vote you off of my,.:cool:,..CSI team,.:p. I hope we get a 'definitive' answer! ;)

01-28-2009, 10:55 AM

samak

Im sure its gotta be a wax scale. I've seen them before in the observation hive. I've also seen pictures of the clear varroa mites when they're young. The whole bee and scale were actually cleaner when I first got it, but I dropped it and had a hard time picking it up, so it got all covered in dust and things. It's easier to see it clearly in real life. Still trying to learn how to take nice closeup photos on the macro setting.

01-29-2009, 12:30 PM

Hobie

Need to send it to Moeuk, the guy who takes those great microscope photos and posts them here occasionally.